FILIPINO gymnast Carlos Yulo ended his first Olympic stint with a fourth-place finish in the Artistic Gymnastics Vault Finals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held at the Ariake Gymnastics Center on August 2.
The last of eight total vaulters that qualified for the finals, Yulo had the opportunity to go for a podium finish had he earned a total score of 17.333 or higher. However, the 21-year-old struggled to properly land on his first vault with his right foot stepping far out of the mat and earning a -0.1 penalty for a score of 14.566.
After the awkward landing on his first attempt, Yulo needed a near-perfect performance on his second vault to get back in the running for a medal. With his medal hopes on the line, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games Vault silver medalist pulled off an exceptional Dragulescu to achieve the highest score in the second run among all the eight gymnasts with a 14.866.
Yulo’s impressive second run was not enough to raise him into the top three as his total score of 14.716 only managed to tie him with Russian Olympic Committee’s Nikita Nagornyy. Nevertheless, Yulo’s high score in the second vault did manage to give him the edge over Nagornyy in the tiebreaker for fourth.
Finishing just ahead of Yulo is Armenia’s Artur Davtyan, who sneaked into third place with a 14.733. Jeahwan Shin of South Korea and Denis Abliazin of the Russian Olympic Committee concluded the finals on top, tying each other for a total score of 14.783. Shin got the better end of the tiebreaker earning a higher vault score on his second attempt with 14.833. Abliazin was relegated to a silver medal by a close margin of 0.033 on his second run, earning a 14.800.
After losing out on the medal, Yulo is already looking forward to future competitions so he can come back even stronger. “I want to get stronger, I feel that I can be better. I won’t go home yet because I have a competition here [Japan] next month. I want to redeem myself,” the Filipino Olympian said in an interview with Inquirer.
Yulo looks to redeem himself with a better finish this September for the All-Japan Seniors tournament.
Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Vault Finals
Jeahwan Shin (Korea): 14.733, 14.833, 14.783
Denis Abliazin (Russian Olympic Committee): 14.766, 14.800, 14.783
Artur Davtyan (Armenia): 14.800, 14.666, 14.733
Carlos Edriel Yulo (Philippines): 14.566, 14.866, 14.716
Nikita Nagornyy (Russian Olympic Committee): 14.833, 14.600, 14.716
Adem Asil (Turkey): 15.266, 13.633, 14.449
Ahmet Onder (Turkey): 13.833, 14.300, 14.066Caio Souza (Brazil): 14.466 , 12.900, 13.683
